| Bishop's CornerPrayer for Peace
By Bishop Timothy W. Whitaker
 In
the Advent hymn “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” we sing: “O come,
Desire of nations bind all peoples in one heart and mind. From dust thou
brought us forth to life; deliver us from earthly strife.”
This hymn celebrates Jesus Christ as the desire
of the nations who is able to bind together all peoples in unity and
bring a peace that delivers us from the strife of war.
When Christ was born, the world was longing for
one who would bring peace on earth. Ancient Christians saw him as the
fulfillment of the desires of both the Jews and the Gentiles. The
Jewish prophet Isaiah looked for a child who would be the Prince of
Peace, who would arbitrate among the peoples so that “they shall
beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks”
and “nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall
they learn war any more.” The Gentile poet Virgil (70-19 B.C.), who
lived in a time when “the fields, bereft of tillers, are all
unkempt, and in the forge the curving pruning-hook is made a straight
hard sword” (“The Georgics, Book I”), promised the return of “the
Virgin” and “a new begetting” in which a boy would be born “whose
birth will end the iron race at last and raise a golden [race] through
the world” (“Eclogue IV”).
As much as ever we need the peace that Christ
brings. Perfect peace will not exist until he who first came in
humility will come again in glory. Yet, even now, his reign of peace
draws near whenever we obey him in the Spirit.
In the midst of the rumblings about war this is
a time to listen to the voice of the Prince of Peace and pray that his
will be done. The Rev. John L. Ewing in Kissimmee has suggested that
all United Methodist Christians set aside one minute each day to offer
a fervent prayer for a solution to the conflicts in the world. He
suggests that all of us pray at 1:01 p.m. every day.
I invite all of us to unite our hearts in prayer
to the living God through the one who is the desire of the nations,
who has come to deliver us from earthly strife.
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